Vercel Verified

Developer Tools, Cloud Computing, Web Hosting, SaaS

Strategic Product Partnerships Lead

San FranciscoHybridFull TimeLead$194,000–$237,000 /yrPosted 1 month ago

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Required skills

Strategic Partnerships Lead
partnerships
growth
pipeline
product
commercial
hyperscalers
frontier AI labs
silicon vendors
commerce software platforms

Nice to have

hyperscaler partnerships
frontier AI lab partnerships
technology licensing
OEM
embedded distribution agreements
solutions architecture

Role summary

Vercel is seeking a Strategic Partnerships Lead to forge unique partnerships that drive company growth by expanding product distribution, generating sales pipeline, and enhancing platform capabilities. This hybrid role, based in San Francisco, Austin, or New York City, requires 3 days/week in office. You will manage key partnerships with hyperscalers, AI labs, silicon vendors, and software platforms, focusing on deep product integration and co-development. The position involves structuring complex commercial and technical agreements, leading cross-functional teams (Product, Engineering, Sales, etc.), and advising leadership on ecosystem trends. The ideal candidate has 8+ years of experience in developing and negotiating complex deals, particularly in platform, infrastructure, cloud, or developer tools, with a proven track record of initiating precedent-setting partnerships and navigating technical intricacies.

About Vercel:

Vercel is the agentic infrastructure company, freeing people and agents to ship what's next. For more than a decade we've helped builders move from idea to production with speed, security, and exceptional developer experience.

Now we're scaling our products for both agents and people to ship and run software, built in the open and trusted by OpenAI, PayPal, Ramp, Supreme, and millions of developers worldwide.

About the role

Vercel is hiring a Strategic Product Partnerships Lead to develop first-of-a-kind partnerships that inflect the company's growth. Done well, these partnerships open distribution for our products, create new pipeline for our field teams, and/or add new capabilities to our platform. This is a highly cross-functional and technical role: you will spend as much time with product and engineering leaders as with commercial ones, internally and externally.

You will report to the Head of Strategic Partnerships and own a named set of partners that includes hyperscalers, frontier AI labs, silicon vendors, and commerce and enterprise software platforms. The work takes a different shape with each one, but the common thread is that these partnerships live close to the product: embedding Vercel inside a partner's platform, co-building new products, taking a joint offering to enterprises that neither company could sell alone.

This is a hybrid position, requiring 3 days per week (Monday, Tuesday, Friday) in one of our San Francisco, Austin, or New York City offices.

What you'll do

Own a named set of strategic partners end to end, from first conversation through signed agreement to launch and growth

Identify and develop new partnerships with the companies that matter most to Vercel's strategy across AI, cloud, commerce, and enterprise software

Build the business case: size the opportunity, scope the product and engineering investment it requires, and give leadership a clear recommendation, including when the recommendation is to pass

Lead negotiations end to end, structuring commercial agreements that are new to Vercel and often new to the partner: revenue share, embedded pricing, co-sell commitments, marketplace terms

Lead cross-functional teams across Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Legal to take a signed agreement to launch

Run deals with structure: clear milestones, agreed measures of success on both sides, and the judgment to stop the ones that are not working

What you need

8+ years developing, negotiating, and executing complex commercial agreements, ideally at a platform, infrastructure, cloud, or developer tools company

A track record of initiating partnerships that had no precedent, with companies significantly larger than your own. You can walk through the terms you won and the ones you gave up

Experience structuring deals with significant technical surface area: platform integrations, embedded or whitelabeled product, licensing, infrastructure and compute commitments. You can hold a credible conversation with a partner's product and engineering teams about agents, inference, model routing, and cloud infrastructure

Experience creating and driving strategy, and getting an organization to fund it

Comfortable leading cross-functional teams you do not manage, through Product, Engineering, Legal, Finance, and Sales

Strong agency and comfort with ambiguity. You decide what to work on and can defend the choice

Excellent written and verbal communication with executives on both sides of the table

Bonus if you

Have done partnerships at or with a hyperscaler, a frontier AI lab, or a large commerce or enterprise software platform

Have structured technology licensing, OEM, or embedded distribution agreements

Started in a technical role (engineering, solutions architecture, or technical product) before moving into commercial work

Compensation & Benefits:

Competitive compensation package, including equity.

Inclusive Healthcare Package.

Learn and Grow - we provide mentorship and send you to events that help you build your network and skills.

Flexible Time Off.

We will provide you the gear you need to do your role, and a WFH budget for you to outfit your space as needed.

The San Francisco, CA salary range for this role is $194,000 - $237,000, plus an annual company target bonus. Actual salary will be based on job-related skills, experience, and location. Compensation outside of San Francisco may be adjusted based on employee location. The total compensation package may include benefits, equity-based compensation, and eligibility for a company bonus or variable pay program depending on the role. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process.

Disclosures:

Privacy: Please review our Job Applicant Privacy Policy for more information on how we handle your data.

Equal Opportunity: Vercel is committed to fostering and empowering an inclusive community within our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Vercel encourages everyone to apply for our available positions, even if they don't necessarily check every box on the job description.

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